Something’s wrong with today’s broadcast fare when commercials are more entertaining than programming.
That’s a stark reversal from tradition. Commercials used to be irritatingly intrusive, designed to repeatedly hammer the product name into viewer brains.
Humor was avoided at all costs because industry moguls believed it distracted viewers from the messages.
No more. Marketing geniuses now provide the Geico ads featuring pissed-off cavemen and the “I just got some good news” series.
Also Nationwide’s garage-door switch, FedEx’s prehistoric delivery and “We don’t get French benefits?,” Holliday Inn’s pseudo rodeo clown and helicopter pilot and Apple's Mac/PC dialogs.
In contention are Comcast’s speed-challenged Slowski turtle couple, Capital One’s displaced Vikings and Edward Jones” therapy session and online bride-seeker.
Mindless reality shows and informercials now provide the irritants—joining “HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead” as unpleasant reminders of the past. (5 NOVEMBER 2006)
